Globalization is now a major part of our world, and perspectives of the people and cultures in different areas of the globe are so important to understand. We can no longer act as though the actions we make here have no effects elsewhere. Teaching this is by no means an easy task. Even for my students who are invested in school, they may at times struggle to understand why perspectives outside of their immediate world is important. For those who already struggle in school, outside perspectives can be even more difficult.

I’ve often spent a great deal of my time thinking about the unique perspectives that my students bring into the classroom. Some grew up as a part of the all ‘American dream’- two parents who loved them deeply and pushed them to succeed, a couple siblings, a childhood where they were allowed to just be a kid in a small town. However, many kids didn’t get to live like this. Some students experienced their parent’s divorce.  Some grew up in a single-parent household their entire life. A handful of my students grew up being the only one that spoke English in their household. One student just learned to speak English a little over a year ago. Some have spent their summers working in fields to help pay the bills. Some have spent their summers working in the fields because farming is a part of their family’s life (and they wouldn’t have it any other way). Many have unfortunately moved from place to place. I have worked very hard to make sure that I take their various perspectives into consideration. For many students, school is just not the most important thing, they have much bigger issues at hand. That does not mean that I do not challenge them, or try to get them invested in what they’re learning about, but I also have to recognize that sometimes they are simply not going to be engaged in what they are learning about. I try to offer student choice as much as possible to help mitigate these issues. Thus, unique perspectives are already a part of what I do. However, I have not spent a great deal of time teaching about other perspectives from other areas of the globe.

We can’t ignore globalization, it is a reality for all of us. Nor does preaching to students about its importance really work to get them invested. Rather, the written communication we use as teachers offers the ability to at least introduce students to outside perspectives that can allow them to have a greater appreciation of them. We’ve discussed Lesson Planning as a portion of the public writing in education on this post. The way we create our lessons plan, or ultimately we teach our students, has the ability to prepare them for a globalized world. This is just another way we can make positive changes for our students by becoming an ‘innovator’ for teaching globalization.

Perspectives on Globalization

Suzan Canli and Hasan Demirtas (2018) define globalization as “an international, intercultural, economic, political, cultural and social integration… where distant settlements were interrelated and local events are shaped by distant events” (80). These authors argue the rise of globalization has created a shift in education where students must be taught the skills that will make them better equipped to participate in an interconnected world where their actions can have effects elsewhere. These authors argued  “today’s educational programs should be organized to train individuals so that they could acquire experiences in globalization that could be influenced by international and intercultural interactions. It should also assist the individual to understand that she or he is an inseparable part of the world in which she or he lives in”  (Canli and Demirtas, 2018, 81).

Though these authors conducted a study in Turkey to determine Turkey’s teachers perceptions of this shift and where there might be issues in applying them, the findings that these authors finish their article with provides understandings that are valuable for all teachers embarking on the journey of teaching globalization (Canli and Demirtas, 2018, 81). The most important is that teachers have the capability to be innovators when it comes to teaching globalization if they are open to the change that is needed. First, they must become global teachers, or a teacher that  “is competent in technology and information technologies, possesses universal educational-instructional qualities, is open to differences, is a global citizen, thinks universally, adapts to universal values, possesses the values of her or his own culture with an active and participatory learning approach, shares knowledge, is objective and a model for the society” (Canli and Demirtas, 2018, 85). It also includes introducing students to multicultural views, without necessarily ignoring their own. The authors present other findings on the changes that teachers need to make, however, the most important is that it requires teachers to assess themselves and work towards their own improvement in these various areas. All teachers have the capability to be innovators when it comes to teaching globalization, we must just think about our practices and how we can improve upon them (Canli and Demirtas, 2018).

So How Do We Teach It? 

 There have been many teachers that have come before in approaching teaching globalization. Larry Ferlazzo (2014), a writer for Education Week, shared a variety of interviews with teachers that were teaching about globalization. Even though it is a ‘large, abstract concept” or one that “if you try to teach it ‘all’ you will find yourself frustrated,” these teachers approached it successfully. They offered many ideas, from connecting students to current events from around the world, looking at how one product is connected to multiple parts of the globe, and, most importantly, recognizing that we cannot teach every piece of globalization, but can at least begin to show students how interconnected the world is. This was in 2014. There are so many more ways we can approach this now (Ferlazzo, 2014).

With the rise of globalization, there has also been a rise in the importance of social media. The connections to teaching globalization are clear, such as Canli and Demirtas (2018) stated about the importance of media to a global teacher and the need for technological competence. IDS (2013) stated that a quarter of the entire world’s population uses social media. Our students understand social media, they relate to it. It is what engages them. Social media might be an excellent place to teach about globalization. As stated by Christopher Swan (2012), social media has the ability to break down barriers (whether those be power related, social, or cultural) and create global conversations about issues that face our world today. It gives everyone a chance to become involved. I believe we can get students involved in global conversations by connecting the teaching of globalization to social media within the lesson plans that we write. It is where we can provide our own forms of innovation.

Perhaps it is crafting assignments where students create Twitter accounts through researching and sharing findings on the experiences of people in other parts of the world (much like Global Classrooms DC that shares a variety of stories from across the globe as a way to help students become more globally aware, you can check out their Twitter here). Perhaps it is assignments where students research a major issue in another country and present their findings through a Facebook, Twitter, or Youtube page. Maybe we ask students to relate how these experiences connect to their own lives. There are so many options, we just have to find them. I do not believe it will be a quick process. It does not have to be done all at once. However, any little bit we can ‘innovate’ can be helpful.

Ultimately, the true goal of teaching globalization is to “help students learn about the differences among people in the multicultural world and the significant global problems they face” (Canali and Demirtas, 2018, 90). This will make them better prepared for the world they will face as members of our society. Individual teachers have the power to be innovative within their classroom by analyzing how they approach global conversations. Entire schools have the ability to innovate to have more inclusive views. This does not mean that we forget our own culture, but rather give our students a much wider perspective.

I will leave you with a question. What can you do? If you are already teaching about globalization, what practices do you use that you find especially successful?

Now, if you will excuse me, it is time to go innovate.

Reference List

Canli, S. and Demirtas, H. (2018). “The Impact of Globalization on Teaching Profession: The Global Teacher.” Journal of Education and Training Studies, 6 (1), 80-95.

Swan, C. (2012). “Connecting the World Through Social Media.” International Association of Business Communicators. Retrieved from https://www.iabc.com/connecting-the-world-through-social-media/.

Institute of Development Studies. (2013). “IDS: A Year in Social Media.” Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0ezsCbVKUY.

Ferlazzo, L. (2014). “Response: Ways to Teach Globalization.” Education Week Teacher. Retrieved from https://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/classroom_qa_with_larry_ferlazzo/2014/06/response_ways_to_teach_globalization.html.

The bulk of the work that I do as a teacher often focuses around one thing. Though grading is certainly a big component, there is an area that takes up even a little more, and that is the writing of my curriculum. I spend my early mornings at the school working on this craft, planning out my next unit, taking careful consideration for each piece. The incredible teacher that I student taught under always had the same mantra- if his name was on it, people could guarantee that his best effort was going to be put into it. The same went for his lesson plans, and it was an approach that he instilled in me.

Clearly, a major component of teacher writing revolves around the creation of the course materials that students will see, specifically with the lesson or unit plans that we create. We focus on learning this skill as teachers-in-training. Teachers want to build the best materials they can because we want to create the best learning opportunities possible for students.

As it is a critical part of education, we need to have a more in-depth discussion of the implications of lesson plan writing. This includes how it is situated as a genre, and not the conception of genre that is merely about textual features, but about the rhetorical components of their creation and how we should approach them. To do this, I will be presenting a specific genre of lesson planning known as Understanding by Design (UBD) to show how important it is to understand the implications of written communication like genre in order to approach these UBD unit plans successfully.

Explanation of Genre  

Genre has long been considered simply as a form of classification, a way that we can identify certain texts as being a specific kind. However, Amy Devitt (1993) presents a conception of genre that is much more thought-provoking for teachers. She sees genre as a rhetorical concept. Certainly text features are still important, however, she sees that these features are simply a response to the writing that has become before them. Writers are able to recognize when writing situations, or rhetorical situations, are continually repeated and require the same type of written response, this makes the writing process more effective, as we must present the right subject matter within a genre in order for it to be useful. This is connected to Lloyd Bitzer’s view of the rhetorical situation that focuses on exigence, or the reason for writing; the audience, or who we are targeting; and constraints, or the outside influences that can impact the effectiveness of the text. However, Devitt (1993) also extends the view of rhetorical situation to also include understanding of the social and cultural context that our language is fulfilling. She shows that genre is a way to make meaning in given situations. Furthermore, it also helps us to construct situations at the same time, as the readers of the text will create understandings or ways of viewing those texts, which is what can be seen as a situation. The same is true for pedagogical genre such as the unit plan. Thus, when creating any text, we must understand the context behind it as we craft them if we want our subject matter to be truly effective.

There are other important considerations for genre that are brought forward by author Charles Bazerman (2002), who sees that participation in various genres helps to shape our identities. Furthermore, as people learn how to partake in these genres, they are also able to begin to shape the genre and meet their needs or desires within that genre. He states that “As participants orient towards this communicative social space they take on the mood, attitude, and actional possibilities of that place-they go that place to do the kinds of things you do there, think the kinds of thoughts you think there, feel the kind of way you feel there, satisfy what you can satisfy there, be the kind of person you can become there” (Bazerman, 2002, 13). This also occurs in the genres that teachers participate in. Their identities as professionals can be shaped through the genres they are a part of, however, they can also create change by understanding those genres (Bazerman, 2002). Thus, not only must teachers understand the context behind genre, but they must also understand how genre shapes them.

Stephen Neaderhiser (2016) shows and builds on the importance of genre for educators in his article “Hidden in Plain Sight: Occlusion in Pedagogical Genres.” He argues that there are certain genres within teacher identities that are hidden or occluded from the public eye. This includes the creation lesson plans or other materials a teacher creates. They may not be considered hidden genres, as they are still seen by students, but rather what is hidden is the other roles that this genre may play in different contexts, as it is rhetorical. If this is not understood, it can have major implications, as “Not only can this occlusion impair teachers from meeting the expectations of those hidden readers, but it also can negatively impact the classroom… Without a critical discussion of how a genre operates, the genre appears to be straightforward and “obvious” in its construction” when it may not be (Neadherhiser, 2016, no page number). He offers the examples of the syllabus as a meta-genre, which at first glance may be only met as a “contract” between the teacher and student, however, it may also serve as a means of accountability for the institution in which the teacher is working. He argues “The rhetorical nature of the syllabus as a pedagogical genre with multiple purposes (and accompanying tensions) is occluded behind a façade of functional oversimplification” (Neaderhiser, 2016, no page number). The implications if we let this happen in other genres is clear, including Understanding By Design as lesson planning.

Explanation of UBD Work

Lesson planning is clearly its own type of genre that must be understood. Thus, I would like to discuss a specific kind of lesson planning genre and what it can show us about learning about this piece of written communication. Understanding by Design (UBD) is a part of my district’s work on teacher clarity, something you can learn more about through this post. UBD has the goal of having a “standard-driven curriculum to help teachers clarify learning goals, devise revealing assessments of student understanding, and craft effective and engaging learning activities” (Authentic Education, 2015). Teachers design unit plans, starting at stage 1, which requires working backwards from the standards they are covering, followed by creating the major understandings students will have that can help them navigate the real world and the essential questions that will be answered. Stage 1 of the learning process is finished by determining what students be able to do (skills), what they will be able to understand by the end of the unit (the essential knowledge).

Photos: A sample of an Understanding by Design template used in 7th Grade English.

The second stage of the unit plan looks at performance tasks, or what major assignments will be used to assess student learning of the topics brought forward in step 1, as well other modes of formative assessment. Finally, stage three presents the progression of the learning plan.

Photo: A sample of stage 2 and 3 from the same unit in 7th Grade.

The UBD Planner as a Genre and the Implications

As a genre, the UBD planner certainly has shaped my identity as an educator. It has shown me the importance of designing a curriculum that is clearly aligned with standards. It has made me better at being able to clearly assess learning. It has allowed me to make changes that better my classroom as I participate as a part of the genre. I am able to construct new situations of student learning.

Furthermore, just as a syllabus may play multiple roles, so may the UBD planner. It certainly falls under the roll of an occluded genre, and is very rhetorical in nature. It might be seen as something that only students see, but it is about much more than that. For my administration, the UBD planner is a means of accountability, a way for me to show that I am working towards the goals of the district. For my students, the planner represents what they are expected to learn. If we do not understand these two different purposes of the genre of unit plan writing, it can limit our effectiveness. I have to meet the expectations that have been set forward by administration (ones that have been specifically designed to help us become more effective). I must also ensure that components that students will see are in student friendly. For our regional educational unit, it is a means of creating improvement across the region. I must understand these nuances within this genre if I am going to adequately meet the different needs of these various rhetorical situations.

This is only one type of genre, and only a few of the implications. What genres do you participate in as an educator? How can analyzing them provide better understandings for yourself and your classroom?

Reference List

Authentic Education. (2015). “What is Understanding By Design?” Retrieved from https://www.authenticeducation.org/ubd/ubd.lasso.

Bazerman, C. (2002). “Genre and Identity: Citizenship in the Age of the Internet and the Age of Global Capitalism.” In R.. Coe, L. Lingard, and T. Tenslenko (Eds.), The Rhetoric and Ideology of Genre: Strategies for Stability and Change (13-37). Cresskill, New Jersey : Hampton Press, Inc.

Devitt, A. (1993). “Generalizing about Genre: New Conceptions of an Old Concept.”Composition and Communication, 44 (4), 573-586.

Neaderhiser, S. E. (2016)““Hidden in Plain Sight: Occlusion in Pedagogical Genres.” Composition Forum, 33.

If we want professional development to be successful, teachers have to be supported.

The world of education is one that is always changing. Those of us involved are constantly looking for ways to improve what we are doing in the classroom to make an impact on students. We hear so much about professional development and how necessary it is to make change. Many teachers understand the importance of taking part in professional development, yet it always seems to hold a highly negative connotation.  Nihal Yurtseven (2017) looks at this in a different light in his article “The Investigation of Teacher’s Metaphoric Perceptions about Professional Development.” He argued “Although many research findings support the fact that professional development is critical for teachers, the important thing is how teachers perceive this fact with their own perspectives… at this point, teachers’ perceptions about professional development can make important contributions to the identification of the concept of teachers’ professional development as well as resolving potential problems”  (124). I would like to take this view and look at local professional development, specifically surrounding the professional development that my region of Northeastern Colorado is taking on. As a group, we can be looked at as educators looking to create change through professional development. There are certain qualities that define how we communicate and how we behave. This Discourse Community of educators can provide other areas looking at professional development with insight into how to communicate effectively when approaching professional development to make it more successful for our schools.

Teacher’s Perceptions of Professional Development

Nihal Yurtseven (2017) conducted his study on teacher perceptions of professional development in Turkey, however, I believe it shows a great deal about the perspectives of educators. This is by no means meant to be a comprehensive view of teacher’s perceptions of professional development, but rather shows general understandings that are necessary to approaching teachers as a Discourse Community. Yurtseven (2017) grouped his findings on teacher perceptions of professional development into different groups. These include seeing professional development as constantly needing to be updated or changed, seeing it as labor intensive, seeing it as a necessary part of what teachers do, and some even found it to be negative in nature. Through these various categories, many similarities came forward. The most important is that teachers understand that professional development is needed, however, they must receive support for it to be effective. Yurtseven (2017) stated that “ it is possible that they [teachers] will feel burnout…Therefore, it is very important for teachers to receive the necessary support in their professional development processes, which they perceive as important as breathing or water and need to continue the learning process as a teacher” (127). This includes giving them resources and time to be able to complete what they are being asked to do.

Clearly, teacher perspectives on professional development must be understood and taken into consideration if their needs are to be met and for professional development to be successful. Thus, I wanted to look at our specific discourse community and how we are communicating these various perceptions and needs to see where we can improve in order to make it effective.

Background on Teacher Clarity for PD

For the past year, Northeast Colorado schools have been working towards teacher clarity and visible learning. This is based on the research conducted by John Hattie. Hattie (2018) held a meta-analysis on various methods employed by teachers and how that affects student learning, whether positive or negative. He averaged the scores out to find that the ‘effect size’ of these separate methods, with anything scored at .40 being the average effect size. This average score equates to the regular levels of learning within students. However, we can hit levels of learning that are much higher than this. Teacher clarity sits at a .75 effect size, and thus has been shown in studies conducted by Hattie to be able to double the rate of learning for students. Furthermore, effective teacher efficacy, or teachers working towards the same goals, has an effect size of 1.57. This leads to exponential rates of learning.

Photo: John Hattie’s Effect Sizes

These two movements are all about helping teachers and students to be able to articulate what they are learning, why they are learning it, and how the students can show what they are learning. Teachers must take state standards and turn them into learning outcomes that are in student friendly language. This allows students to clearly see what they are expected to learn. From this, teachers then construct success criteria, or what students must be able to do to show they have mastered the learning outcome. This allows students to take on responsibility of the learning process. By students being able to see this integrated across the board in a school, it increases learning in all areas. Clearly, these movements that our schools are working towards are necessary and important due to the impact it can have on student learning. This focus helps to piece the educators that are a part of this movement together as a specific Discourse Community. It creates meaning for our districts as we work to make improvements.

Discourse communities and Professional Development

Discourse communities should be defined and how this is related to professional development based on the movement towards teacher clarity and efficacy, as this certainly shapes teacher perception on professional development and how effectively we can work. Some may see discourse as dealing specifically with language. While language is certainly connected to this, James Gee (1999) looks at Discourse Communities as a specific way of “thinking, valuing, acting, and interacting, in the ‘right’ places and at the ‘right’ times” (17). It is about much more than language. It helps us to establish or recognize socially situated identities, or identities that allows that person to do something specific that creates specific meanings our understandings. Gee (1999) also includes the existence of “grammar two,” which is different from the traditional grammar we learn in schools.  Different discourses have different shared understandings as a part of their grammar two that helps to create meaning. Though there may be different meanings for the language, the grammar two that Gee (1999)  looks at allows for members of a Discourse Community to give specific meaning in order to communicate.

As a part of our Discourse Community of teachers attempting to create change, there are certainly clear attributes of our community that allows us to be recognized. We are all educators, even if we hold different positions within the field, most of us value making improvements for our students. This identity puts us in the right position to enact what we learn in professional development. We all share the same meaning, or grammar two, on how we approach teacher clarity through the meaning of learning outcomes and success criteria.

However, we do have different perspectives within our discourse community about how to approach the work towards teacher clarity, which is where our effectiveness can struggle. Gee (1999) pointed out that there are also “Conversations,” or the interplay of different discourses, which can at times seem to be a debate. This is prevalent within our Discourse community. For instance, some teachers, not because they are lazy or do not care about student learning, see the push for teacher clarity as overwhelming, resulting in conversations about how to enact this properly when there is already so much asked of them. Furthermore, different schools or even teachers may enact these concepts differently depending upon their discourses. This brings in an important argument crafted by James Porter (1986) on the intertextuality of communication. Porter (1986) argues that all texts contain “traces” of allusions or references to other works crafted in that discourse. That is a part of what makes communication effective in discourses, as these connections help to make it meaningful. These conversations of time, of the autonomy of teachers, and more show legitimate concerns within the Discourse of teachers working to create change, something that must be dealt with if our Discourse community is going to work as effectively as it can.

What We Do Well, and What We Can Work On

It is imperative that we understand this community we are a part of. Not only the teachers that are in the “trenches” putting in the hard work to make a change for their students, but also the administrators who are doing their best to help their teachers use these strategies effectively, and for the other leaders instructing our schools in the best way to approach integrating change. We need to look at what we do well, and what we need to work on in the future for this to occur. I believe that we share the same language and goals; this has been presented quite clearly within our community. However, there are areas that need work.

A major finding of teacher perceptions that have been communicated in our Discourse Community is that teachers must be given the time to do this properly. One area of question that so many teachers have is how to do this for all their classes when they have seven periods to prepare for. Leaders of our professional development have made clear time and time again teachers must have time to do this, they cannot be expected to have it done in a couple months. However, it has to go beyond just being a part of our language in our Discourse, but must become a part of what we do. Thus, administration that set deadlines must take this into consideration in order for it to be effective. Though I know many administrators are working towards this, all need to be on the same page within our Discourse.

Photo: Professional Development Leader Dave Nagel shows the importance communication.

Furthermore, there are clearly variations in views in our Discourse Community. As discussed above, different schools have different approaches. We should not desire to get from teacher and school autonomy, but work together to ensure that all schools and teachers feel that they are able to have their concerns voiced in the community to address issues they see. This will help all teachers feel more supported in this process, something Yurtseven (2017) stated was necessary for professional development to hit its potential. It will also allow our Discourse Community to be more successful if this support allows teachers and schools to feel more comfortable enacting the goals we have set forward.

I am very proud and excited about the work we are doing within our region. We are working towards something that is so beneficial. It does not mean that the process is perfect, but rather allows us to see ways to improve.

All schools, all regions, and all teachers should take a look at their professional development. What are you doing well, what needs work? What are your perceptions of your teachers? Do you share the same language and same goals? If you don’t, how can you get there?

We all have what it takes to create meaningful, effective professional development that can make a difference for our students.

Sources:

Yurtseven, N. (2017). “The Investigation of Teacher’s Metaphoric Perceptions about Professional Development.” Journal of Education and Learning, 6 (2), 120-131.

Gee, J. P. (1999). “Discourses and Social Languages.” In Introduction to Discourse Analysis: Theory and Method. London: Routledge.

Porter, J. E. (1986): “Intertextuality and the Discourse Community.” Rhetoric Reviews, 5, 34-47.

Corwin. (2019). What is Teacher Clarity? Retrieved from https://us.corwin.com/en-us/nam/what-is-teacher-clarity

Visible Learning. (2019). “Hattie Ranking: 252 Influences And Effect Sizes Related To Student Achievement. Retrieved from https://visible-learning.org/hattie-ranking-influences-effect-sizes-learning-achievement/